One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of preparing a fibrous protein smectic hydrogel by way of a solvent templating process, comprising the steps of pouring an aqueous fibrous protein solution into a container comprising a solvent that is not miscible with water sealing the container and allowing it to age at about room temperature and collecting the resulting fibrous protein smectic hydrogel and allowing it to dry. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of obtaining predominantly one enantiomer from a racemic mixture, comprising the steps of pouring an aqueous fibrous protein solution into a container comprising a solvent that is not miscible with water sealing the container and allowing it to age at about room temperature allowing the enantiomers of racemic mixture to diffuse selectively into the smectic hydrogel in solution removing the smectic hydrogel from the solution rinsing predominantly one enantiomer from the surface of the smectic hydrogel and extracting predominantly one enantiomer from the interior of the smectic hydrogel. The present invention also relates to a smectic hydrogel prepared according to an aforementioned method.
